McCourt's diction in his memoir 'Tis is similar to his style in many respects. His choice of words is fairly simple, almost layman like, and yet he succeeds in describing with colour the events occurring in his book. There are no, or very few, "big words" in 'Tis. In the book, McCourt talks about having to look up "big words" like existenialism and bubkes. Again, this is probably intentional, and meant to reflect McCourt's simple upbringing and minimal education before attending NYU.
McCourt does, however, exhibit a knowledge of many types of slang, ranging from Irish cussing to Italian sayings. The different styles of slang, or use of specific words by certain characters, often associates them with one of the various groups McCourt comes across in his life. The Irish-American dock workers speak one way, while the NYU students speak another, and the men in the American Army speak yet another. This helps add to the feel of the novel, giving each character a twist of their own, adding to their identity.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Independant Reading Blog #1: 'Tis - Style
Frank McCourt, author of 'Tis, was brought up in the poverty of 1930's and '40s Limerick, with only a limited eductaion available to him. That fact is intentionally evident in the style in which his book is written. McCourt's writing is simple, almost child-like, with little and "improper" use of puncuation. Yet it is very descriptive, getting across very vivid images in the simplest language. In that sense, it is probably very like Irish storytellers that McCourt remembers as a child, among them his father.
McCourt's sentences are often ungainly in length, and occasionally awkwardly phrased, sometimes recquiring a second read through. He also repeats phrases or sentences within certain sections. This usually happens when he is feeling intense emotions, like anger or shame, or when he is drunk.
For example, he often lists the many troubles that are making him mad, and then repeats them while explaining that no one would care about or understand, his problems. This is an easy method to use in order to get the reader to remember a certain phrase(s) which will tie the book together at different points.
In the end, McCourt's style, though simple, is very effective, and contributes to the unique feel of the story.
McCourt's sentences are often ungainly in length, and occasionally awkwardly phrased, sometimes recquiring a second read through. He also repeats phrases or sentences within certain sections. This usually happens when he is feeling intense emotions, like anger or shame, or when he is drunk.
For example, he often lists the many troubles that are making him mad, and then repeats them while explaining that no one would care about or understand, his problems. This is an easy method to use in order to get the reader to remember a certain phrase(s) which will tie the book together at different points.
In the end, McCourt's style, though simple, is very effective, and contributes to the unique feel of the story.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Too Bad About Mrs. Ferri
It's not every child you run into who grew up next-door to a big-shot comedian, and whose parents had no qualms about making demands in a mob restaurant, with the owner (and friends) present. August Kleinzahler was one of these, however. The way he makes his experiences seem genuinely eight-year-old-ish is through the content of his memories, as well as the fact that he doesn't try and make it look as if he knew better than he did at the time. No eight-year-old would. For example, when Mr. Anastasia, August's friend's dad, and a local mob capo, gets assinated, Augusts' mother tells him that Mr. Anastasia "got very, very sick" and that "Gloriana and her mommy are to have to go away for a while." Also, a lot of what is often remembered is what other people, usually older than he is, are telling him. For example, when his mother informs him of Mr. Anastasia's "illness", or when Buddy Hackett told him "Fuck you, kid; talk to my agent." He has many memories of people talking to him, but not many of him speaking, Buddy Hackett episode excluded. This is probably true of most people, because when you're a kid, up to a certain age, most of what goes on in your world either happens in your head, or is your observation of something else. You might comment on your observations to those present, but your not usually articulate enough for it to make much sense.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
The Dog, The Family: A Household Tale
Most people have parents. In fact, everybody has parents. However, when your parents don't take any interest in you, they tend to become not so much parents, as people you have to live with. This was the case for August Kleinzahler, whose recent memoire "Cutty, One Rock", was very well received by critics nationwide. Kleinzahler, born in New Jersey in 1949, was raised in a family that was far less than caring. His parents openly told him he was a mistake, and chose not to have any part in his early upbringing, leaving him in the responsibility of the family dog and their Czech housekeeper. After firing Christine, the housekeeper, his did mother decided to take some part in the rearing of her youngest child, but probably only because her husband would have nothing to do with raising children. The first thing Kleinzahler's mother did: try to get rid of her son's thick Czech accent, a result of being completely ignored by his parents and taken in, in his own home, by Christine.
The dog, Granny, however, played an even larger role in Kleinzahler's early years than the housekeeper. Granny was his only playmate, his only friend. His brother and sister were never there for him. His sister was constantly studying Latin behind her locked bedroom door, while his brother was either found in the basement, putting together model airplanes, or outside in an apple tree, but certainly not with Augustus. Everyone seemed to ignore Augustus Kleinzahler in his childhood. If they weren't ignoring him, they were making fun of him. His great aunt called him "dog-boy", his mother never let him forget his accent, teasing him about it years later by immitating him. His father, meanwhile, completely ignored his children. All in all, Kleinzahler's does not seem like a good, or even a normal childhood.
The mood for the entire piece is, I believe set up by the first sentence, "It was the dog who raised me". That does not bode well for the cheeriness factor throughout the rest of the book, and the second sentence does nothing to lighten the tone, "Oh, the others came and went with their nurturing gestures and concerns, but it was the dog on whose ear I teethed and who watched over me with the sagacity and bearing of a Ugandan tribal chief". I did thouroughly enjoy the first chapter though.
The dog, Granny, however, played an even larger role in Kleinzahler's early years than the housekeeper. Granny was his only playmate, his only friend. His brother and sister were never there for him. His sister was constantly studying Latin behind her locked bedroom door, while his brother was either found in the basement, putting together model airplanes, or outside in an apple tree, but certainly not with Augustus. Everyone seemed to ignore Augustus Kleinzahler in his childhood. If they weren't ignoring him, they were making fun of him. His great aunt called him "dog-boy", his mother never let him forget his accent, teasing him about it years later by immitating him. His father, meanwhile, completely ignored his children. All in all, Kleinzahler's does not seem like a good, or even a normal childhood.
The mood for the entire piece is, I believe set up by the first sentence, "It was the dog who raised me". That does not bode well for the cheeriness factor throughout the rest of the book, and the second sentence does nothing to lighten the tone, "Oh, the others came and went with their nurturing gestures and concerns, but it was the dog on whose ear I teethed and who watched over me with the sagacity and bearing of a Ugandan tribal chief". I did thouroughly enjoy the first chapter though.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Gr.12 - Blog #1: THe Glass Castle
MSNBC has a collection of characters from all different backgrounds working in their offices, and Jeannette Walls is one of them. Walls and her siblings were raised in poverty by their free-thinking parents, and she has now written a memoire about her childhood, which she has entitled The Glass Castle. In her book, the manner of her upbringing is reflected in the style of her writing: simple, yet colourful, and to the point. However, poor is one thing Walls' writing most certainly is not!
Conveyed to us through the memories displayed in The Glass Castle is the frank and somewhat removed tone of an author who might once have been intensely embarassed by what they are writing. I imagine it would have been excrutiatingly difficult for Ms. Walls to accept her parents as they were, and feel secure enough in herself to write a book about being raised in poverty. This comes through in the tone of her book, and makes it quite humble. She doesn't try to make you feel sorry for her, she just tells the stories as they are.
For an American, and an MSNBC employee, Walls' diction is fantastic. It's simple and to the point, which I think reflects her upbringing. She doesn't try to use extravagant vocabulary to spice up her stories, because then the stories wouldn't fit the characters, who were plain, simple people. "We'd have to be out of our minds to want to trade places with any of them," Walls' father says when talking about city people and the way they live. That easy-going, kind, simpleness bred into Walls from a young age is evident in her writing.
Conveyed to us through the memories displayed in The Glass Castle is the frank and somewhat removed tone of an author who might once have been intensely embarassed by what they are writing. I imagine it would have been excrutiatingly difficult for Ms. Walls to accept her parents as they were, and feel secure enough in herself to write a book about being raised in poverty. This comes through in the tone of her book, and makes it quite humble. She doesn't try to make you feel sorry for her, she just tells the stories as they are.
For an American, and an MSNBC employee, Walls' diction is fantastic. It's simple and to the point, which I think reflects her upbringing. She doesn't try to use extravagant vocabulary to spice up her stories, because then the stories wouldn't fit the characters, who were plain, simple people. "We'd have to be out of our minds to want to trade places with any of them," Walls' father says when talking about city people and the way they live. That easy-going, kind, simpleness bred into Walls from a young age is evident in her writing.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Blog #10 - The Ash Garden
QUOTATIONS:
Quotation #1:
"He nodded. "Yes," he said. "I'm back.""
I like this particular quotation because, even though we know that Anton and Sophie will not be able to have children, and will not live as happily together as they wished they would, this shows the time in their lives when they didn't know what was in store for them, and were hopeful for the future. Anton appeared to have made a bounce back from his state of self pity, regret, and anger at what his role in the bomb, which he had to do soon if he did not want his marriage to end in an ugly fashion. Sophie appears to be happy during this scene, and although she knows she won't be able to have children, she believes she has her loving husband back, which is all she cares about for the moment. I like this quotation because it shows two people in love and together once again, despite the challenges they have faced, and the trials still ahead.
Quotation #2:
"We bought hotdogs and Mrs. Forrester showed me how to dress mine, all this without words, squeezing ketchup and spooning relish and sauerkraut, and when I bit into its centre she smiled and repositioned the bun lengthwise in my hands."
This quotation appeals to me because it depicts Emiko attempting to live a normal life, and Mrs. Forrester trying to help her, even in the smallest of ways. Eating a hotdog on a summer day may seem to us like nothing special, or out of the ordinary, but that's exactly why it would be important to Emiko: because it is ordinary. For someone scarred by the Atomic bomb, who no longer looks normal, or is treated normally by her own people, to be able to do something ordinary for a change would be a real treat I imagine. Any chance for her to catch a glimpse of a regular, unscarred life would be relished I imagine (pardon the pun). All the more so because the concept of a hotdog was clearly a new experience for Emiko. I also like this scene because it is rather amusing to picture somebody trying to eat a hotdog sideways!
Quotation #3:
"He watched for insects and matched what he saw in the air to a blue-winged olive he carried in his fly box, tied it to his tippet and stepped carefully into the river."
I particularly like this quoatation because it describes with fantastic accuracy one of my most favourite leisurely pursuits: fly-fishing. In this scene, Anton is fishing in a river near his home in Port Elizabeth, and Marlie, the girl who Anton helped when her leg was broken on the toboggan hill during the winter, comes across him in the river. He feels an overwhelming urge to introduce himself, and to ask how her leg is feeling. To me, that really conveys to the reader how human Anton is. I do, however, have a bone to pick with one detail of the fly-fishing description. When watching for bugs to determine what type of fly to use, you look at the bugs on the water's surface, not the bugs in the air. This is because those are the bugs that are easiest for the fish to get, and like everything else in life, if you make things easy for others (human or not), you're more likely to get a response! Especially as during the summer time, as Bock mentioned, the fish are sluggish and lazy, tending to stick to the bottom of the river or lake, where the water is calmer and cooler.
QUESTIONS:
Question #1: What is your experience with fly-fishing, and do you have any good spots to recommend?
Question #2: What inspired you to write about the atomic bomb as opposed to a less depressing subject?
Question #3: Is there a personal connection for you to any aspect of the book, or is your novel entirely based on events unrelated to your life?
Quotation #1:
"He nodded. "Yes," he said. "I'm back.""
I like this particular quotation because, even though we know that Anton and Sophie will not be able to have children, and will not live as happily together as they wished they would, this shows the time in their lives when they didn't know what was in store for them, and were hopeful for the future. Anton appeared to have made a bounce back from his state of self pity, regret, and anger at what his role in the bomb, which he had to do soon if he did not want his marriage to end in an ugly fashion. Sophie appears to be happy during this scene, and although she knows she won't be able to have children, she believes she has her loving husband back, which is all she cares about for the moment. I like this quotation because it shows two people in love and together once again, despite the challenges they have faced, and the trials still ahead.
Quotation #2:
"We bought hotdogs and Mrs. Forrester showed me how to dress mine, all this without words, squeezing ketchup and spooning relish and sauerkraut, and when I bit into its centre she smiled and repositioned the bun lengthwise in my hands."
This quotation appeals to me because it depicts Emiko attempting to live a normal life, and Mrs. Forrester trying to help her, even in the smallest of ways. Eating a hotdog on a summer day may seem to us like nothing special, or out of the ordinary, but that's exactly why it would be important to Emiko: because it is ordinary. For someone scarred by the Atomic bomb, who no longer looks normal, or is treated normally by her own people, to be able to do something ordinary for a change would be a real treat I imagine. Any chance for her to catch a glimpse of a regular, unscarred life would be relished I imagine (pardon the pun). All the more so because the concept of a hotdog was clearly a new experience for Emiko. I also like this scene because it is rather amusing to picture somebody trying to eat a hotdog sideways!
Quotation #3:
"He watched for insects and matched what he saw in the air to a blue-winged olive he carried in his fly box, tied it to his tippet and stepped carefully into the river."
I particularly like this quoatation because it describes with fantastic accuracy one of my most favourite leisurely pursuits: fly-fishing. In this scene, Anton is fishing in a river near his home in Port Elizabeth, and Marlie, the girl who Anton helped when her leg was broken on the toboggan hill during the winter, comes across him in the river. He feels an overwhelming urge to introduce himself, and to ask how her leg is feeling. To me, that really conveys to the reader how human Anton is. I do, however, have a bone to pick with one detail of the fly-fishing description. When watching for bugs to determine what type of fly to use, you look at the bugs on the water's surface, not the bugs in the air. This is because those are the bugs that are easiest for the fish to get, and like everything else in life, if you make things easy for others (human or not), you're more likely to get a response! Especially as during the summer time, as Bock mentioned, the fish are sluggish and lazy, tending to stick to the bottom of the river or lake, where the water is calmer and cooler.
QUESTIONS:
Question #1: What is your experience with fly-fishing, and do you have any good spots to recommend?
Question #2: What inspired you to write about the atomic bomb as opposed to a less depressing subject?
Question #3: Is there a personal connection for you to any aspect of the book, or is your novel entirely based on events unrelated to your life?
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Blog #9 - The Weathermakers
Precis:
Chapter twenty of Tim Flannery's book The Weather Maker's is entitled "Boiling the Abyss", and begins with a very relevant quotation by Thomas Campbell: "Let us think of them that sleep; Full many a fathom deep ... ". The chapter goes on to explain the effects of global warming on the many wonderful and mysterious creatures that dwell in the oceans' depths. The results, needless to say, are not good.
Flannery explains that these creatures are as sensitive to temperature as we are to pressure. Early on, when they were caught and brought to the surface, they died. The cause of death was thought to be the pressure difference between their natural habitat at ours, however, when put in a bucket of icy water, they were fully revitalized within minutes. This proves that although they can survive at surface pressure, they can not survive in warmer temperatures. Even temperatures that would freeze us to death in minutes are fatally warm for these fish. This ability does have its pros and cons - Pro: we can catch them and keep them as ugly, fanged pets in bulletproof goldfish bowls ( ... or in museums). Minus: They all die if the water temperature goes up even a few degrees. Which it will do, as global temperatures continue to rise, and the polar ice caps, which circulate the supply of cold water around the world's oceans, melt.
It won't just be the swimming sea creatures that are harmed either. Shellfish will also get hammered if the ocean waters' CO2 content rises too far, which it is likely to do within the next hundred years or so. If the amount of CO2 in the water gets too high, the oceans will become acid, and the limited supply of carbonate, which acts as the oceans' buffer, will drop below the level at which crustaceans can use it to form their shells. At that point, the carbonate will be leached out of their shells and back into the oceans, making it impossible for these animals to maintain their protective covers. In a hundred years, we could see shell-less shellfish.
However, there is time, Flannery says. These events will take a hundred years or more to occur if we continue on at the pace we're going now. But it will happen. And if we don't do something about it, we may lose species of flora and fauna that are unknown to us at present. We may have already lost some. The oceans are the only place where we can still discover new creatures, and it's a bad idea to go about slowly destroying them just so we can have our human indulgences. We are the dominant species on our planet, and which means we must look after and care for all the other plants and animals, no matter how small. Like they say in the comics, with great power, comes great responsibility.
Questions:
1.) How can the average person help save the lives of stoplight loosejaws and hairy seadevils?
2.) How big a role in the ecosystem (global or local) do these deep sea creatures play?
3.) Is there a way we can undo the damage we've already done to the Earth, or are there only preventative measures that we can take at this point?
Chapter twenty of Tim Flannery's book The Weather Maker's is entitled "Boiling the Abyss", and begins with a very relevant quotation by Thomas Campbell: "Let us think of them that sleep; Full many a fathom deep ... ". The chapter goes on to explain the effects of global warming on the many wonderful and mysterious creatures that dwell in the oceans' depths. The results, needless to say, are not good.
Flannery explains that these creatures are as sensitive to temperature as we are to pressure. Early on, when they were caught and brought to the surface, they died. The cause of death was thought to be the pressure difference between their natural habitat at ours, however, when put in a bucket of icy water, they were fully revitalized within minutes. This proves that although they can survive at surface pressure, they can not survive in warmer temperatures. Even temperatures that would freeze us to death in minutes are fatally warm for these fish. This ability does have its pros and cons - Pro: we can catch them and keep them as ugly, fanged pets in bulletproof goldfish bowls ( ... or in museums). Minus: They all die if the water temperature goes up even a few degrees. Which it will do, as global temperatures continue to rise, and the polar ice caps, which circulate the supply of cold water around the world's oceans, melt.
It won't just be the swimming sea creatures that are harmed either. Shellfish will also get hammered if the ocean waters' CO2 content rises too far, which it is likely to do within the next hundred years or so. If the amount of CO2 in the water gets too high, the oceans will become acid, and the limited supply of carbonate, which acts as the oceans' buffer, will drop below the level at which crustaceans can use it to form their shells. At that point, the carbonate will be leached out of their shells and back into the oceans, making it impossible for these animals to maintain their protective covers. In a hundred years, we could see shell-less shellfish.
However, there is time, Flannery says. These events will take a hundred years or more to occur if we continue on at the pace we're going now. But it will happen. And if we don't do something about it, we may lose species of flora and fauna that are unknown to us at present. We may have already lost some. The oceans are the only place where we can still discover new creatures, and it's a bad idea to go about slowly destroying them just so we can have our human indulgences. We are the dominant species on our planet, and which means we must look after and care for all the other plants and animals, no matter how small. Like they say in the comics, with great power, comes great responsibility.
Questions:
1.) How can the average person help save the lives of stoplight loosejaws and hairy seadevils?
2.) How big a role in the ecosystem (global or local) do these deep sea creatures play?
3.) Is there a way we can undo the damage we've already done to the Earth, or are there only preventative measures that we can take at this point?
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